I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of producing rice cybrid cells and plants. This invention is useful in the breeding of rice.
II. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a number of methods have been reported in which a whole plant is regenerated from a cell prepared by cell fusion. By these methods, the hybridization of plants of distant relation can be attained, which was hitherto impossible. In addition, the combination or exchange of the cytoplasm of the parents (cybridization), which was hitherto impossible in the conventional hybridization breeding technique, can be attained by these methods.
Unlike the conventional backcross breeding which requires a long period of time, cybridization can be carried out in a short period of time, so that the cybridization technique is now intensively studied in the field of breeding of plants.
However, up to now, cybrids were successfully provided in a limited number of plant species, such as the tobacco, carrot and potato species.
Rice is an important crop and rice plants with improved characteristics are desired. Up to now, however, a cybrid of rice or even a somatic hybrid of rice has not yet been obtained.